SELOC Successes

For what appears at first sight to be fairly ordinary week there was plenty going on for SELOC. Main item was the last in this year’s Saturday series at The Burrs in Bury, which had a good turnout. Stephen Richards squeezed some interesting courses on to an updated map which he had to amend late on to cater for flooding after all the rain. Results are already on the club website so won’t repeat in full here, but good to see some of our newcomers doing well with Matt Brierley in 8th place on the Light Green course, less than 4 minutes behind the winner, and Lee Ward in 18th on the same course. On the Orange course, Colin Peel was 4th and Andrea Gregory 7th.

Then on Saturday a number of our keenest night orienteers headed up to Arnside Knott for the opening event in this winter’s NW Night League. In what were remarkably dry conditions underfoot, Mark Seddon achieved the best result for SELOC in 2nd place on the Blue course, with Steve Wilson not far behind in 4th and Kev Latham 12th. Stephen Richards took 8th spot on the Green course.

Then on Sunday, two of our juniors headed south to the British Schools Champs near Slough where Theo M ran well to get 8th place for his Canon Slade School in Year 8 Boys whilst Adam T ran a bit further on the Year 9 Boys course to secure 18thspot for Bury CofE High School. Unfortunately they were the only representatives from their schools so stood no chance of securing a good team result. Also on Sunday, Steve Round headed to Sheffield for SYO’s middle distance race at Bowden Housesteads to get 14th place on the Green course.

Most innovative event of the week was MDOC’s Street League event at Heaviley, Stockport, on Tuesday night which offered the option of a downloaded map and “punching” controls, both using mobile phones although conventional paper was also available. Many competitors took the opportunity to try this rapidly evolving technology which enabled partial results to be uploaded almost on finishing, potentially transforming this branch of the sport in the same way that conventional electronic punching did for mainstream Foot-O 20 years ago. Paul Turner (15th overall but 7th on handicap) and Albert Sunter (17th overall, 16th on handicap) may be able to tell us more – or look out for news of the SELOC Christmas event!

SELOC Club League Latest

Results have been posted on the website. Matt Driver has maintained his lead although Paul Turner has closed the gap a little. Anna W is doing very well in 3rd place overall, and clearly the leading junior, while Chris Taylor is the top newcomer in 6th overall. Next event is a choice of Night or Day race at PFO’s Darwen Moor events on 7th and 8th December, then just EPOC’s Storthes Hall event south of Huddersfield on 22 December to make your mark on this year’s League table.

Upcoming Events

SROC’s Night Street League event at Kirkham, near Blackpool will attract our usual band of SELOC enthusiasts on Wednesday night, though there’s another unfortunate clash with the third in LOC’s night urban event series at Grange over Sands the same evening. AIRE also have a forest night score event that night, near Keighley.Then to the weekend, when MDOC stage a Saturday event on our doorstep at Boggart Hole Clough – decent studs required on the steep slopes given the rain we’ve had! A tough choice on Sunday between CLARO’s event amongst the unique landscape of Brimham Rocks, which offers excellent navigational challenge on a new map, or LOC’s Cumbrian Galoppen in the tough Lake District forest of Bethecar Moor. Urban League runners will prefer the last in this year’s East Midlands League, but Paul Turner will find it hard to improve on his current 3rd place in MSV class.